Along with the Civil Service Commission, other federal agencies, including the National Archives, the Office of Civil Defense (the precursor to the Federal Emergency Management Agency), and the Social Security Administration began storing records in the Boyers facility around the same time. J. G. Franz, then office manager of the Boyers mine, told a newspaper reporter in 1966 that federal agencies have “backup equipment for everything” stored in a special area of Boyers to protect the records in the event of nuclear fallout.
Franz told a local newspaper that workers “hope we will never have to worry about a nuclear explosion,” but that if one happened, the mine would be safely sealed off, according to newspaper archives reviewed by WIRED. “The mine is equipped with a 30-day supply of food and supplies for all of the employees.”
At the time, the staff at Boyers were…
